This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/935,933 filed Sep. 7, 2004 the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Designers of games of chance often attempt to control both the size and frequency of payouts. Choosing the correct frequency and size of payouts can greatly increase the attractiveness of a game to a gaming customer. One way large payouts are made economically feasible is by the use of a progressive game. In a conventional progressive game, a portion of each wager in a base of some of chance is contributed to a progressive prize pool. Periodically, a player of the base game may win all or a portion of the accumulated progressive prize pool.
An individual game machine may have an associated progressive jackpot for that machine alone. Any conventional game machine may be associated with a progressive game, e.g. slot machines, poker machines, keno machines, video lottery terminals, pull-tab machines, lottery ticket vending machines or other types of game machines. Alternatively, to increase the size of the potential jackpot, multiple game machines may all contribute to the same progressive jackpot. These multiple game machines, generally identical in type and manufacture, may be connected with a progressive host which controls the progressive game, tracks the contributions, and awards the progressive prize. The more machines that are included, the larger the potential jackpot that can be supported in an economically feasible manner, and the more attractive the game is to players who are attracted by large “life changing event” jackpots. To further increase the progressive jackpot prize, a wide area progressive system may be implemented, where machines in different geographical locations are connected together, for example, in a WAN.
Prior art progressive games do not allow multiple types of game terminals supplied by different manufacturers, running different base games, and operated by multiple independent operators to participate in a single progressive game. Prior art progressive games also do not allow the game terminal or local game server to determine a winner for a progressive prize which includes multiple terminals and/or multiple locations.